G. 131. W. 11.-Government. i. e. decency of manners, evenness of temper. "So in Henry IV.-Let men say we be men of good government."

This quotation equals in happiness that which proved Meleander to be a thief, (p. xci.) and evinces the peculiar advantage of quoting illustrative passages from an Index. These men of decent manners and evenness of temper, are Gadshill, Peto, &c. "governed (as Falstaff says) by their chaste mistress the moon, under whom they-steal."

G. 132. W.11.-Flows. The 4to reads floats.

And why should it not? The word occurs three times, if not oftener, in this very volume; and is quite as much to the purpose as that which the editor has wantonly put in its place.

G. 133. W.14.-Scold like a cot-quean.

"The meaning of this word is obvious. The first syllable cot, is an abbreviation of waistcoat, which was a dress peculiarly appropriated to prostitutes. Thus Hall,

Fond Conis

Who like a cot-quean freezeth at the rock,

While his breecht dame doth man the foreign stock."

So that Cœnis (of whose story poor Mr. Weber suspects nothing) was a strumpet, a kind of people who, with his leave, seldom freeze at the rock or wheel either. Cotquean, in Hall, is an uxorious husband; in Ford, a man with the habits of a brawling housewife.

G. 134. W. 15.-Brave, my lord.

This is wrong; the address is not to the speaker's lord, (who is absent,) but to his antagonist, then before him.

Read: Brave my lord! i. e. such a dastard as you, defy my patron!

The allusion is to a former speech.

G. 139. W.20.-Partage. i. e. partition; so explained by Cotgrave! This, however, is by the bye, for Mr. Weber subsequently explains it himself, " Partage, i. e. partnership."

G.140. W.20.-Mr. Weber continues the scene in the street, and attributes the impropriety of it to a "strange inadvertence, or the fault of the scantiness of theatrical furniture," what particular furniture was wanted here, is not apparent:-the fact, however, is, (though he is pleased to say that no change could have taken place,) that the conversation in Ford's mind was transferred to Florio's house. I have therefore called it Scene III.

G.145. W.26.-Scene III. An apartment in Florio's house.
Every line shows that this is impossible.

Read: Scene IV. The Street.

G. 147. W.27.-Look ye, uncle, my brother told me, just now. Read: My barber told me just now. A far more likely

G.147. W.28.—And you are running hither? Nonsense.
Read: And you are running thither.

G. 147. W.28.-Should I not go abroad like other gallants?
Read: Should I not go abroad to see fashions like other
gallants?

G. 148. W.29.-He hath no other will.

Read: He hath no other wit.

G. 150. W.31.-Oh, your wanton :

Read: Oh, you are wanton!

G. 158. W.33.-Cunning.

"The word cunning, at the time the play was written, had not acquired its present bad signification."

Had the critic, instead of turning to his index, opened so common a book as Johnson's Dictionary, he would have seen that it meant in Ford's time precisely what it means now. As applied to the arts, and particularly music, practical skill; as applied to the senses, subtilty, craft, deceit.

G. 154. IV.34.-His pleasure is life. This is very poor.
Read: His pleasures life-and for i' truth, troth.

G. 157. W.38.-Ere I be servile.

Ere I will be servile.

Read:

G. 163. W.42.—When he and she doth meet.

Read: Do meet.

G. 163. W.43.—

In several places our sagacious editor makes himself merry with the oscitancy of his predecessors, Reed and Dodsley, in the due arrangement of the scenery; with the importance of which he is so deeply impressed, that he places it first in merit,-" the writing of notes" (it seems) "not being to be compared with it ;" and he plumes himself accordingly on his success in this respect Yet the blundering absurdity of his own disposition of the scene, whenever he attempts a reform, is beyond all credibility. "Donado's House" is prefixed to this short dialogue, which evidently passes in the street, and in the course of which Donado twice orders his nephew to repair home, and keep within doors! Not to add, that the speakers in the preceding scene are still retained on the stage.

G. 166. W.46.—To taste of mischief.

Read: To taste a mischief.

G. 168. W. 47.-For coral, lips.

Read: For colour, lips—and for form, r. throne.

G. 172, W.50.-I told I had more wit.

Read: I told him I had more wit.

G. 173. W.51.-This house. This subverts the sense.
Read: His house, i, e. Richardetto's.

G. 174. W.52.-Well, sir, now you are free, you need not care for sending letters: now you are dismiss'd you mistress here will none of you.

Read: Well, sir, now you are free! you need not care for sending letters now; you are dismiss'd, your mistress here will none of you.

G. 175. W.53.-" The Street."

G. 180. W.58.-'Tis but the maid's sickness, and over-flux of youth.

Read: 'Tis but the maids-sickness, an over-flux of youth.

G. 184. W.61.—“Richardetto's apartment in Florio's house." This is a well-meant attempt to save Richardetto. the charge of house-rent; but unluckily to no end :-seriously, there is not a line in the whole scene that does not prove it to have taken place at his own house. This repeated blundering is pitiable.

G. 185. W.61.-If you miss now! To-morrow I'll know all.
Mr. Weber greatly mistakes the meaning.

Read: If you miss now, to-morrow I shall know all. i. e. It is but a night lost; for if you miss now, I shall have the whole to-morrow, and shall then be enabled to give you fresh instructions.

G. 187. IV.63.-Scene VI. The Friar's cell.

"The old ridiculous stage direction was neither altered by Mr. Dodsley nor by Mr. Reed in their republications."

Will it be credited, that the scene, after all Mr. Weber's self-congratulation, does not lie in the "Friar's Cell," but

h

in “ Annabella's Chamber," and that it is expressly said so just before:

Come, father, I'll conduct you to her chamber"!

The important corrections of this new Aristarchus consist merely in omitting the word enter, and exchanging study for cell. With respect to enter, which is a perpetual source of merriment to our critic, it is more fitted to call up wonder and regret at the forlorn state of the stage on which these marvels of dramatic power were displayed. There were no scenes to shift; and what was an instant before a street, was converted into a bed-chamber by simply moving forward a couch or a chair, with the person in or upon it. The Friar, therefore, (however" ridiculous" it may seem,) literally made his entrance in a chair. Mr. Weber was probably thinking of his being wheeled over an acre of ground, on the boundless areas of the present day, instead of being gently shoved forward a foot or two on the contracted stage of Ford's time.

G. 189. W.65.-My sister weeping?

I fear this friar's falsehood; I will call him. i. e. "I will upbraid him. The same expression is still used at schools for scolding or swearing."

This is the intrepidity of ignorance, and no less false than foolish.

Read: My sister weeping!

I fear this friar's falsehood. [Aside. I will call him.

[Exit.

The Friar had just asked if Soranzo were come? and, on being told that he was "waiting below," says, "Bid him come near;" to which Giovanni, the person addressed, replies, as in the text, "I will call him." He accordingly goes out for that purpose, and re-enters with him, in the course of a single line.

G. 192. W. 68.-Even to my bosom, Vasques: let my youth Revel in these new pleasures. If we thrive, &c.

Gallant, but wrong.